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It's a little past 4pm as Yellow Matter Custard - guitarist Paul Gilbert, drummer Mike Portnoy, guitarist and keyboardist Neal Morse and bassist Kasim Sulton - dart into the BB Kings nightclub in New York City.

They're just flown in from Chicago, but airport delays and ever-snarled Manhattan traffic have put them an hour late for soundcheck. The much-loved, highly pedigreed Beatles tribute band, who have reformed after an eight-year absence (ex-Utopia member Sulton is a replacement for original Custard bassist Matt Bissonette, who is currently touring with Rick Springfield), quickly take to the stage and get down to the matter at hand.

And when it comes to hands - or, more specifically, fingers - Paul Gilbert has serious business to tend to, and it involves the use of Krazy Glue. In what could have been a tour-ending mishap, the guitarist, just days before the group's first rehearsal, sliced open the middle finger of his left hand with an X-Acto blade. "I was cutting some foam to pack Kasim's bass in, and I put the knife through my finger," he says. "I was amazed that it didn't even bleed. But there was this flap of skin hanging off. Turns out, it was my callus. So while it didn't bleed, it was horribly painful, which has forced me to go the Stevie Ray Vaughan route with the Krazy Glue." [It's been documented that the late bluesman Vaughan relied on Krazy Glue to seal similar injuries before shows.]

Asked if he thought Gilbert's blade run-in would endanger the Custard gigs, Portnoy chuckles and says matter-of-factly, "No - because he's Paul Gilbert." And he's right: two gigs down, one to go, and Gilbert's hanging right in there. Solos have posed no problem for the shredtastic guitar star. "I can rip through 'em, and I'm fine," Gilbert says. "But chords are a different matter altogether. Those cursed E7s have a way of ripping right through my finger. Four songs with E7s is all it takes. And The Beatles loved their E7 chords."

A little dab of the sticky stuff applied to his still-smarting digit and Gilbert is "ready to play some Beatles." Briskly, he unpacks his guitars (an Ibanez AS-103, modified to look like a 1965 Epiphone Casino, along with a 1990 Ibanez Custom Shop 12-string) and sets up his pedalboard. "No roadies on this tour," he says. "We're doing this old school."

It was in 2003 that Yellow Matter Custard played but a smattering of gigs (Portnoy and Gilbert would later team up for more tribute bands, Amazing Journey, Hammer Of The Gods and Cygnus And The Sea Monsters, honoring, respectively, The Who, Led Zeppelin and Rush). Over the years, however, something strange happened: interest in the band grew, with fans from across the globe begging and blogging for a reunion. And then, late last year, right after MusicRadar published an interview with Portnoy (part of a conversation recorded during the summer of 2010) in which he discussed The Beatles and Yellow Matter Custard, the drummer announced that they were getting back together for a three-show run (LA, Chicago and NYC). Talk about your coinkydinks!

The man's a pro: Paul Gilbert, pre-soundcheck, about to Krazy Glue a nasty slice on his finger. © Joe Bosso

"That was very funny timing," Portnoy tells me. "I remember doing that interview with you, not knowing at the time that we would be getting back together. And just as I was planning the whole thing, the interview was posted. It was strange, but it was pretty cool."

Time is tight. All four musicians make speedy tweaks to their instruments and gear (Portnoy is playing a custom-built Tama 'Ringo' kit for these shows - the four-piece setup is a far cry from the massive wall of drums that fans are accustomed to see him sit behind), and before you can say "toppermost of the poppermost," they blast through four of the nearly 40(!) Beatles tunes they'll play for tonight's sold-out show: set-opener Back In The USSR, Lady Madonna (Morse tests his keyboard sound on this number), The Word and Paperback Writer. As one would expect, the group packs a considerable wallop musically, but it's their final microphone check, a brief a capella rendering of Because (part of an Abbey Road medley they'll perform) that truly astonishes. Make no mistake: these guys don't just have chops, they have pipes, too.

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